Relief As NHIF Cuts Burden For Its Members.
THE National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) has announced a new benefit package that among other issues increased consultation fee it pays health service providers for its beneficiaries to see medical doctors prior treatment at different levels of health facilities.
Addressing journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday NHIF’s Director General Bernard Konga said that the new package arrangement that comes into effect early January next year targets at enabling health service providers to serve its members coming from different economic backgrounds at a competitive market price.
According to him, the new consultation fee package will see NHIF paying 25,000/- for its beneficiary to see an experienced specialized medical doctor at a regional referral hospital. The fee tops the 15,000/- currently paid for the same service.
“I can tell from the new package that our intention is to enable health facilities to provide services at a competitive market price thus serving many beneficiaries,” said Konga.
He said the Fund will from next month pay 20,000/- for its member to see a specialized doctor at regional referral hospital up from the 15,000/- it currently pays.
With regard to the present competitive market price charged by health facilities to non-NHIF patients, the Fund has agreed with service providers to increase at least 20,000/- for complex services offered at district hospitals.
For instance, he said, NHIF has agreed to pay a district hospital attending a patient with appendectomy 150,000/- per section up from the current 110,000/-. It has agreed to pay 130,000/- for caesarean section and BTL up from 110,000/-.
“We have come to learn that some payments we used to make were too overestimated compared to the market realities. In that case, some changes have been made on the value of payments to health providers,” he said.
He asserted that the Fund shall be paying 200,000/- down from 240,000/- to a health facility that has undergone a single haemodialysis case. It will pay 14,900/- down from 33,000/- it is currently paying a health facility that undergoes erythropoietin 2,000 IU for its beneficiary.
It will further pay 15,000/- down from 66,000/- a health facility that offers an NHIF member with erythropoietin 4,000 IU section.
Konga said through the new package, NHIF will provide 124 medicines from the national essential medicines list for Tanzania Mainland (NEMLIT). It will impose an alternative for 309 medicines to make it align with the NEMLIT.
It will also initiate an addition of strength and formulation medicines to the list in consideration of medicines availability on the market.
